Prince developed an interest in music as a young child and wrote his first song at the age of seven.[10] He signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records at the age of 17, and released his debut album For You in 1978. His 1979 album Prince went platinum, and his next three albums—Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982)—continued his success, showcasing his prominently explicit lyrics and blending of funk, dance, and rock music.[11] In 1984, he began referring to his backup band as the Revolution and released Purple Rain, the soundtrack album to his film debut. It quickly became his most critically and commercially successful release, spending 24 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200[12] and selling over 20 million copies worldwide.[13] After releasing the albums Around the World in a Day (1985) and Parade (1986), The Revolution disbanded, and Prince released the double album Sign o' the Times (1987) as a solo artist. He released three more solo albums before debuting The New Power Generation band in 1991.

In 1993, while in a contractual dispute with Warner Bros., he changed his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol (), also known as the "Love Symbol", and began releasing new albums at a faster rate to remove himself from contractual obligations. He released five records between 1994 and 1996 before signing with Arista Records in 1998. In 2000, he began referring to himself as "Prince" again. He released 16 albums after that, including the platinum-selling Musicology (2004). His final album, Hit n Run Phase Two, was first released on the Tidal streaming service on December 2015. Five months later, at the age of 57, Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park recording studio and home in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

The Minneapolis house where Prince stayed with André Cymone's family, pictured in August 2017[14]

Prince Rogers Nelson was born on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Mattie Della (née Shaw) and John Lewis Nelson.[15] His parents were both African American and his family ancestry is centered in Louisiana, with all four of his grandparents hailing from that state.[16] His father was a pianist and songwriter, and his mother was a jazz singer. Prince was given his father's stage name, Prince Rogers, which his father used while performing with his mother in a jazz group called the Prince Rogers Trio.[17] In 1991, Prince's father told A Current Affair that he named his son Prince because he wanted Prince "to do everything I wanted to do".[18] Prince was not fond of his name and wanted people to instead call him Skipper, a name which stuck throughout his childhood.[17][19][20] Prince has said he was "born epileptic" and had seizures when he was young. He stated, "My mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, 'Mom, I'm not going to be sick anymore,' and she said, 'Why?' and I said, 'Because an angel told me so.'"[21]

Prince's younger sister, Tyka, was born on May 18, 1960.[22][23] Both siblings developed a keen interest in music, which was encouraged by their father.[24] Prince wrote his first song, "Funk Machine", on his father's piano when he was seven.[24] Prince's parents divorced when he was 10, and his mother remarried to Hayward Baker, with whom she had a son named Omarr; Prince had a troubled relationship with Baker, causing him to repeatedly switch homes, sometimes living with his father and sometimes with his mother and stepfather.[24][25] Baker took Prince to see James Brown in concert, and Prince credited Baker with improving the family's finances. After a brief period of living with his father, who bought him his first guitar, Prince moved into the basement of the Anderson family, his neighbors, after his father kicked him out. He befriended the Andersons' son, Andre, who later collaborated with Prince and became known as André Cymone.[26][27]

Prince attended Minneapolis' Bryant Junior High and then Central High School, where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He was a student at the Minnesota Dance Theatre through the Urban Arts Program of Minneapolis Public Schools.[28] He played on Central's junior varsity basketball team, and continued to play basketball recreationally as an adult.[29][30] Prince met Jimmy Jam in 1973 in junior high, and impressed him with musical talent, early mastery of a wide range of instruments, and work ethic.[31]

In 1975, Pepe Willie, the husband of Prince's cousin Shauntel, formed the band 94 East with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry, hiring André Cymone and Prince to record tracks.[citation needed] Willie wrote the songs, and Prince contributed guitar tracks, and Prince and Willie co-wrote the 94 East song, "Just Another Sucker".[citation needed] The band recorded tracks which later became the album Minneapolis Genius – The Historic 1977 Recordings.[citation needed]

In 1976, Prince created a demo tape with producer Chris Moon, in Moon's Minneapolis studio.[citation needed] Unable to secure a recording contract, Moon brought the tape to Owen Husney, a Minneapolis businessman, who signed Prince, age 17, to a management contract, and helped him create a demo at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis (with producer/engineer David Z).[citation needed] The demo recording, along with a press kit produced at Husney's ad agency, resulted in interest from several record companies including Warner Bros. Records, A&M Records, and Columbia Records.[32]

With the help of Husney, Prince signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. The record company agreed to give Prince creative control for three albums and ownership of the publishing rights.[33][34] Husney and Prince then left Minneapolis and moved to Sausalito, California, where Prince's first album, For You, was recorded at Record Plant Studios. The album was mixed in Los Angeles and released on April 7, 1978.[35] According to the For You album notes, Prince wrote, produced, arranged, composed, and played all 27 instruments on the recording, except for the song "Soft and Wet", whose lyrics were co-written by Moon. The cost of recording the album was twice Prince's initial advance. Prince used the Prince's Music Co. to publish his songs. "Soft and Wet" reached No. 12 on the Hot Soul Singles chart and No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song "Just as Long as We're Together" reached No. 91 on the Hot Soul Singles chart.

Ticket to Prince's first performance with his band in January 1979

In 1979, Prince created a band with André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar, Gayle Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, and Bobby Z. on drums. Their first show was at the Capri Theater on January 5, 1979. Warner Bros. executives attended the show but decided that Prince and the band needed more time to develop his music.[36][page needed] In October 1979, Prince released the album Prince, which was No. 4 on the BillboardTop R&B/Black Albums charts and No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and went platinum. It contained two R&B hits: "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover" sold over a million copies, and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 for two weeks on the Hot Soul Singles chart. Prince performed both these songs on January 26, 1980, on American Bandstand. On this album, Prince used Ecnirp Music – BMI.[37]

In 1980, Prince released the album Dirty Mind, which contained sexually explicit material, including the title song, "Head", and the song "Sister", and was described by Stephen Thomas Erlewine as a "stunning, audacious amalgam of funk, new wave, R&B, and pop, fueled by grinningly salacious sex and the desire to shock."[38] Recorded in Prince's own studio, this album was certified gold, and the single "Uptown" reached No. 5 on the Billboard Dance chart and No. 5 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. Prince was also the opening act for Rick James' 1980 Fire It Up tour.

In February 1981, Prince made his first appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing "Partyup". In October 1981, Prince released the album, Controversy. He played several dates in support of it, at first as one of the opening acts for the Rolling Stones, on their US tour. He began 1982 with a small tour of college towns where he was the headlining act. The songs on Controversy were published by Controversy Music[39] – ASCAP, a practice he continued until the Emancipation album in 1996. By 2002, MTV News noted that "[n]ow all of his titles, liner notes and Web postings are written in his own shorthand spelling, as seen on 1999's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, which featured 'Hot Wit U.'"[40]

During this period Prince referred to his band as the Revolution.[48][49] The band's name was also printed, in reverse, on the cover of 1999 inside the letter "I" of the word "Prince".[50] The band consisted of Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z. on drums, Brown Mark on bass, and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Jill Jones, a backing singer, was also part of the lineup for the 1999 album and tour.[50] Following the 1999 Tour, Dickerson left the group for religious reasons.[51] In the book Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince (2003), author Alex Hahn says that Dickerson was reluctant to sign a three-year contract and wanted to pursue other musical ventures. Dickerson was replaced by Coleman's friend Wendy Melvoin.[48] At first the band was used sparsely in the studio, but this gradually changed during 1983.[50][51][52]

According to his former manager Bob Cavallo, in the early 1980s Prince required his management to obtain a deal for him to star in a major motion picture, despite the fact that his exposure at that point was limited to several pop and R&B hits, music videos and occasional TV performances. This resulted in the hit film Purple Rain (1984), which starred Prince and was loosely autobiographical, and the eponymous studio album, which was also the soundtrack to the film.[49] The Purple Rain album sold more than 13 million copies in the US and spent 24 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The film won Prince an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score[53] and grossed over $68 million in the US ($160 million in 2017 dollars[54]).[55][56] Songs from the film were hits on pop charts around the world; "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" reached No. 1, and the title track reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.[57] At one point in 1984, Prince simultaneously had the No. 1 album, single, and film in the US;[58] it was the first time a singer had achieved this feat.[59] The Purple Rain album is ranked 72nd in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time;[60] it is also included on the list of Time magazine's All-Time 100 Albums.[61] The album also produced two of Prince's first three Grammy Awards earned at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards—Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.[47]

In late 1984, pop artist Andy Warhol created the painting, Orange Prince (1984). Vanity Fair reproduced Warhol's portrait to accompany an article Purple Fame in the November 1984 edition, and claimed that the silkscreen image with its pop colors captured the recording artist "at the height of his powers". The 1984 Vanity Fair article was one of the first global media pieces written as a critical appreciation of the musician, which coincided with the start of the 98-date Purple Rain Tour.[62]

In 1985, Prince announced that he would discontinue live performances and music videos after the release of his next album. His subsequent recording, Around the World in a Day (1985), held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for three weeks. From that album, the single "Raspberry Beret" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Pop Life" reached No. 7.[57]

In 1986, his album Parade reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the R&B charts. The first single, "Kiss", with the video choreographed by Louis Falco, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.[57] (The song was originally written for a side project called Mazarati.) In the same year, the song "Manic Monday", written by Prince and recorded by the Bangles, reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart. The album Parade served as the soundtrack for Prince's second film, Under the Cherry Moon (1986). Prince directed and starred in the movie, which also featured Kristin Scott Thomas. Although the Parade album went platinum and sold two million copies,[65][66] The film Under the Cherry Moon received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (tied with Howard the Duck), and Prince received Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Director, Worst Actor, and Worst Original Song (for the song "Love or Money").[67][68]

Prior to the disbanding of the Revolution, Prince was working on two separate projects, the Revolution album Dream Factory and a solo effort, Camille.[69] Unlike the three previous band albums, Dream Factory included input from the band members and featured songs with lead vocals by Wendy & Lisa.[69] The Camille project saw Prince create a new androgynous persona primarily singing in a sped-up, female-sounding voice. With the dismissal of the Revolution, Prince consolidated material from both shelved albums, along with some new songs, into a three-LP album to be titled Crystal Ball.[70] Warner Bros. forced Prince to trim the triple album to a double album, and Sign o' the Times was released on March 31, 1987.[71]

It was named the top album of the year by the Pazz & Jop critics' poll and sold 3.2 million copies.[73] In Europe it performed well, and Prince promoted the album overseas with a lengthy tour. Putting together a new backing band from the remnants of the Revolution, Prince added bassist Levi Seacer, Jr., keyboardist Boni Boyer, and dancer/choreographer Cat Glover[74] to go with new drummer Sheila E[75] and holdovers Miko Weaver, Doctor Fink, Eric Leeds, Atlanta Bliss, and the Bodyguards (Jerome, Wally Safford, and Greg Brooks) for the Sign o' the Times Tour.

The Sign o' the Times tour was a success overseas, and Warner Bros. and Prince's managers wanted to bring it to the US to promote sales of the album;[76][77] Prince balked at a full US tour, as he was ready to produce a new album.[76] As a compromise, the last two nights of the tour were filmed for release in movie theaters. The film quality was deemed subpar, and reshoots were performed at Prince's Paisley Park studios.[76] The film Sign o' the Times was released on November 20, 1987. The film got better reviews than Under the Cherry Moon, but its box-office receipts were minimal, and it quickly left theaters.[77]

The next album intended for release was The Black Album.[78] More instrumental and funk- and R&B-themed than recent releases,[79]The Black Album also saw Prince experiment with hip hop on the songs "Bob George" and "Dead on It". Prince was set to release the album with a monochromatic black cover with only the catalog number printed, but after 500,000 copies had been pressed,[80] Prince had a spiritual epiphany that the album was evil and had it recalled.[81] It was later released by Warner Bros. as a limited edition album in 1994.

Prince went back in the studio for eight weeks and recorded Lovesexy. Released on May 10, 1988, Lovesexy serves as a spiritual opposite to the dark The Black Album.[82] Every song is a solo effort by Prince, except "Eye No", which was recorded with his backing band at the time. Lovesexy reached No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and No. 5 on the R&B albums chart.[83] The lead single, "Alphabet St.", peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100 and No. 3 on the R&B chart;[71] it sold 750,000 copies.[84]

Prince again took his post-Revolution backing band (minus the Bodyguards) on a three leg, 84-show Lovesexy World Tour; although the shows were well-received by huge crowds, they failed to make a net profit due to the expensive sets and props.[85][86]

In 1989, Prince appeared on Madonna's studio album Like a Prayer, co-writing and singing the duet "Love Song" and playing electric guitar (uncredited) on the songs "Like a Prayer", "Keep It Together", and "Act of Contrition". He also began work on several musical projects, including Rave Unto the Joy Fantastic and early drafts of his Graffiti Bridge film,[87][88] but both were put on hold when he was asked by Batman (1989) director Tim Burton to record several songs for the upcoming live-action adaptation. Prince went into the studio and produced an entire nine-track album that Warner Bros. released on June 20, 1989. Batman peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200,[89] selling 4.3 million copies.[90] The single "Batdance" topped the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts.[71]

The single, "The Arms of Orion" with Sheena Easton, charted at No. 36, and "Partyman" (also featuring the vocals of Prince's then-girlfriend, nicknamed Anna Fantastic) charted at No. 18 on the Hot 100 and at No. 5 on the R&B chart, while the love ballad "Scandalous!" went to No. 5 on the R&B chart.[71] Prince had to sign away all publishing rights to the songs on the album to Warner Bros. as part of the deal to do the soundtrack.

In 1990, Prince went back on tour with a revamped band for his back-to-basics Nude Tour. With the departures of Boni Boyer, Sheila E., the horns, and Cat, Prince brought in keyboardist Rosie Gaines, drummer Michael Bland, and dancing trio the Game Boyz (Tony M., Kirky J., and Damon Dickson). The European and Japanese tour was a financial success with a short, greatest hits setlist.[91] As the year progressed, Prince finished production on his fourth film, Graffiti Bridge (1990), and the 1990 album of the same name. Initially, Warner Bros. was reluctant to fund the film, but with Prince's assurances it would be a sequel to Purple Rain as well as the involvement of the original members of the Time, the studio greenlit the project.[92] Released on August 20, 1990, the album reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and R&B albums chart.[93] The single "Thieves in the Temple" reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the R&B chart;[71] "Round and Round" placed at No. 12 on the US charts and No. 2 on the R&B charts. The song featured the teenage Tevin Campbell (who also had a role in the film) on lead vocals. The film, released on November 20, 1990, was a box-office flop, grossing $4.2 million.[94] After the release of the film and album, the last remaining members of the Revolution, Miko Weaver and Doctor Fink, left Prince's band.

1991–1994: The New Power Generation, Diamonds and Pearls, and name change[edit]

1991 marked the debut of Prince's new band, the New Power Generation. With guitarist Miko Weaver and long-time keyboardist Doctor Fink gone, Prince added bass player Sonny T., Tommy Barbarella on keyboards, and a brass section known as the Hornheads to go along with Levi Seacer (taking over on guitar), Rosie Gaines, Michael Bland, and the Game Boyz. With significant input from his band members, Diamonds and Pearls was released on October 1, 1991. Reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart,[95]Diamonds and Pearls saw four hit singles released in the United States. "Gett Off" peaked at No. 21 on the Hot 100 and No. 6 on the R&B charts, followed by "Cream", which gave Prince his fifth US No. 1 single. The title track "Diamonds and Pearls" became the album's third single, reaching No. 3 on the Hot 100 and the top spot on the R&B charts. "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" peaked at No. 23 and No. 14 on the Hot 100 and R&B charts respectively.[96]

In 1992, Prince and the New Power Generation released his twelfth album, bearing only an unpronounceable symbol on the cover (later copyrighted as "Love Symbol #2") as its title.[97] The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200.[98] The symbol was explained as being a combination of the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀).[97] The label wanted "7" to be the first single, but Prince fought to place "My Name Is Prince" in that slot, as he "felt that the song's more hip-hoppery would appeal to the same audience" that had purchased the previous album.[99] Prince got his way, but "My Name Is Prince" reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 23 on the R&B chart. The follow-up single "Sexy MF" charted at No. 66 on the Hot 100 and No. 76 on the R&B chart. The label's preferred lead single choice "7" reached No. 7.[96] The album, which would later be referred to as Love Symbol, went on to sell 2.8 million copies worldwide.[99]

After two failed attempts in 1990 and 1991,[100] Warner Bros. released a greatest hits compilation with the three-disc The Hits/The B-Sides in 1993. The first two discs were also sold separately as The Hits 1 and The Hits 2. The collection features the majority of Prince's hit singles (with the exception of "Batdance" and other songs that appeared on the Batman soundtrack), and several previously hard-to-find recordings, including B-sides spanning the majority of Prince's career, as well as some previously unreleased tracks such as the Revolution-recorded "Power Fantastic" and a live recording of "Nothing Compares 2 U" with Rosie Gaines. Two new songs, "Pink Cashmere" and "Peach", were chosen as promotional singles to accompany the compilation album.

In 1993, in rebellion against Warner Bros., which refused to release Prince's enormous backlog of music at a steady pace,[101][102] Prince officially adopted the aforementioned "Love Symbol" as his stage name.[97] In order to use the symbol in print media, Warner Bros. had to organize a mass mailing of floppy disks with a custom font.[103] At this time, Prince was alternatively referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" or simply "The Artist".[104]

In 1994, Prince began to release albums in quick succession as a means of releasing himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. He also began appearing with the word "slave" written on his face.[105] The label, he believed, was intent on limiting his artistic freedom by insisting that he release albums more sporadically. He also blamed Warner Bros. for the poor commercial performance of Love Symbol, claiming they had marketed it insufficiently. It was out of these developments that the aborted The Black Album was officially released, seven years after its initial recording. The "new" release was already in wide circulation as a bootleg. Warner Bros. then succumbed to Prince's wishes to release an album of new material, to be entitled Come.[citation needed]

Prince pushed to have his next album The Gold Experience released simultaneously with Love Symbol-era material. Warner Bros. allowed the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" to be released via a small, independent distributor, Bellmark Records, in February 1994. The release reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 in many other countries, but it did not prove to be a model for subsequent releases. Warner Bros. still resisted releasing The Gold Experience, fearing poor sales and citing "market saturation" as a defense. When released in September 1995, The Gold Experience reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 initially. The album is now out of print.

Chaos and Disorder, released in 1996, was Prince's final album of new material for Warner Bros., as well as one of his least commercially successful releases. Prince attempted a major comeback later that year when, free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., he released Emancipation, a 36-song, 3-CD set (each disc was exactly 60 minutes long). The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. To publish his songs on Emancipation, Prince did not use Controversy Music – ASCAP, which he had used for all his records since 1981, but rather used Emancipated Music Inc.[106] – ASCAP.

Prince released Crystal Ball, a five-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was disorderly, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was shipped; these pre-orders were delivered months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The retail edition has only four discs, as it is missing the Kamasutra disc. There are also two different packaging editions for retail; one is a four-disc sized jewel case with a white cover and the Love Symbol in a colored circle while the other contains all four discs in a round translucent snap jewel case. The discs are the same, as is the CD jacket. The Newpower Soul album was released three months later. His collaborations on Chaka Khan's Come 2 My House and Larry Graham's GCS2000, both released on the NPG Records label around the same time as Newpower Soul, were promoted by live appearances on Vibe with Sinbad and the NBCToday show's Summer Concert Series.

The pay-per-view concert, Rave Un2 the Year 2000, was broadcast on December 31, 1999 and consisted of footage from the December 17 and 18 concerts of his 1999 tour. The concert featured appearances by guest musicians including Lenny Kravitz, George Clinton, Jimmy Russell, and The Time. It was released to home video the following year.

On May 16, 2000, Prince stopped using the Love Symbol moniker as his name, after his publishing contract with Warner/Chappell expired. In a press conference, he stated that, after being freed from undesirable relationships associated with the name "Prince", he would revert to using his real name. Prince continued to use the symbol as a logo and on album artwork and to play a Love Symbol-shaped guitar. For several years following the release of Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Prince primarily released new music through his Internet subscription service, NPGOnlineLtd.com (later NPGMusicClub.com).[112]

In 2002, Prince released his first live album, One Nite Alone... Live!, which features performances from the One Nite Alone...Tour. The 3-CD box set also includes a disc of "aftershow" music entitled It Ain't Over!. During this time, Prince sought to engage more effectively with his fan base via the NPG Music Club, pre-concert sound checks, and at yearly "celebrations" at Paisley Park, his music studios. Fans were invited into the studio for tours, interviews, discussions and music-listening sessions. Some of these fan discussions were filmed for an unreleased documentary, directed by Kevin Smith.

In April 2004, Prince released Musicology through a one-album agreement with Columbia Records. The album rose as high as the top five on some international charts (including the US, UK, Germany, and Australia). The US chart success was assisted by the CDs being included as part of the concert ticket purchase, thereby qualifying each CD (as chart rules then stood) to count toward US chart placement.[122] Three months later, Spin named him the greatest frontman of all time.[123]
That same year, Rolling Stone magazine named Prince as the highest-earning musician in the world, with an annual income of $56.5 million,[124] largely due to his Musicology Tour, which Pollstar named as the top concert draw among musicians in the US. He played 96 concerts; the average ticket price for a show was US$61 (equivalent to $79 in 2017). Musicology went on to receive two Grammy wins, for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Call My Name" and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the title track. Musicology was also nominated for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album, and "Cinnamon Girl" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Rolling Stone ranked Prince No. 27 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[125]

In late 2005, Prince signed with Universal Records to release his album, 3121, on March 21, 2006. The first single was "Te Amo Corazón", the video for which was directed by actress Salma Hayek and filmed in Marrakech, Morocco, featuring Argentine actress and singer Mía Maestro. The video for the second single, "Black Sweat", was nominated at the MTV VMAs for Best Cinematography. The immediate success of 3121 gave Prince his first No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with the album.

To promote the new album, Prince was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on February 4, 2006, 17 years after his last SNL appearance on the 15th anniversary special, and nearly 25 years since his first appearance on a regular episode in 1981.[127]

At the 2006 Webby Awards on June 12, Prince received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his "visionary use of the Internet to distribute music and connect with audiences", exemplified by his decision to release his album Crystal Ball (1998) exclusively online.[128][129]

In July 2006, weeks after winning a Webby Award, Prince shut down his NPG Music Club website, after more than five years of operation.[130][131] On the day of the music club's shutdown, a lawsuit was filed against Prince by the British company HM Publishing (owners of the Nature Publishing Group, also NPG). Despite these events occurring on the same day, Prince's attorney stated that the site did not close due to the trademark dispute.[130]

In November 2006, Prince was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame;[114] he appeared to collect his award but did not perform. Also in November 2006, Prince opened a nightclub called 3121, in Las Vegas at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. He performed weekly on Friday and Saturday nights until April 2007, when his contract with the Rio ended.[citation needed] On August 22, 2006, Prince released Ultimate Prince. The double-disc set contains one CD of previous hits, and another of extended versions and mixes of material that had largely only previously been available on vinyl record B-sides. That same year, Prince wrote and performed a song for the hit animated film Happy Feet (2006). The song, "The Song of the Heart", appears on the film's soundtrack, which also features a cover of Prince's earlier hit "Kiss", sung by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. In January 2007, "The Song of the Heart" won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.[134]

On February 2, 2007, Prince played at the Super Bowl XLI press conference, and the Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show in Miami, Florida on February 4, 2007, on a large stage shaped like his symbol. The event was carried to 140 million television viewers, his biggest ever audience.[135] In 2015, Billboard.com ranked the performance as the greatest Super Bowl performance ever.[136]

Prince played 21 concerts in London during mid-2007. The Earth Tour included 21 nights at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena, with Maceo Parker in his band. Tickets for the O2 Arena were capped by Prince at £31.21 ($48.66). The residency at the O2 Arena was increased to 15 nights after all 140,000 tickets for the original seven sold out in 20 minutes.[137] It was then further extended to 21 nights.[138]

Prince performed with Sheila E. at the 2007 ALMA Awards. On June 28, 2007, the Mail on Sunday stated that it had made a deal to give Prince's new album, Planet Earth, away for free with the paper, making it the first place in the world to get the album. This move sparked controversy among music distributors and also led the UK arm of Prince's distributor, Sony BMG, to withdraw from distributing the album in UK stores.[139] The UK's largest high street music retailer, HMV, stocked the paper on release day due to the giveaway. On July 7, 2007, Prince returned to Minneapolis to perform three shows. He performed concerts at the Macy's Auditorium (to promote his new perfume "3121") on Nicollet Mall, the Target Center arena, and First Avenue.[140] It was the first time he had played at First Avenue (the club appeared in the film Purple Rain) since 1987.[141]

From 2008, Prince was managed by UK-based Kiran Sharma.[142] On April 25, 2008, Prince performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he debuted a new song, "Turn Me Loose". Days after, he headlined the 2008 Coachella Festival. Prince was paid more than $5 million for his performance at Coachella, according to Reuters.[143]
Prince cancelled a concert, planned at Dublin's Croke Park on June 16, 2008, at 10 days' notice. In October 2009 promoters MCD Productions went to court to sue him for €1.6 million to refund 55,126 tickets. Prince settled the case out of court in February 2010 for $2.95 million.[144][145] During the trial, it was said that Prince had been offered $22 million for seven concerts as part of a proposed 2008 European tour.[146] In October 2008, Prince released a live album entitled Indigo Nights, a collection of songs performed live at aftershows in the IndigO2.

On December 18, 2008, Prince premiered four songs from his new album on LA's Indie rock radio station Indie 103.1.[147] The radio station's programmers Max Tolkoff and Mark Sovel had been invited to Prince's home to hear the new rock-oriented music. Prince gave them a CD with four songs to premiere on their radio station. The music debuted the next day on Jonesy's Jukebox, hosted by former Sex PistolSteve Jones.[148]

On January 3, 2009, the new website LotusFlow3r.com was launched, streaming and selling some of the recently aired material and concert tickets. On January 31, Prince released two more songs on LotusFlow3r.com: "Disco Jellyfish", and "Another Boy". "Chocolate Box", "Colonized Mind", and "All This Love" were later released on the website. Prince released a triple album set containing Lotusflower, MPLSoUND, and an album credited to Bria Valente, called Elixer, on March 24, 2009, followed by a physical release on March 29.

In January 2010, Prince wrote a new song, "Purple and Gold", inspired by his visit to a Minnesota Vikings football game against the Dallas Cowboys.[151] The following month, Prince let Minneapolis-area public radio station 89.3 The Current premiere his new song "Cause and Effect" as a gesture in support of independent radio.[152]

In 2010, Prince was listed in Time magazine's annual ranking of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".[153]

Prince released a new single on Minneapolis radio station 89.3 The Current called "Hot Summer" on June 7, his 52nd birthday. Also in June, Prince appeared on the cover of the July 2010 issue of Ebony,[154] and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 BET Awards.[155]

Prince released his album 20Ten in July 2010 as a free covermount with publications in the UK, Belgium, Germany, and France.[156] He refused album access to digital download services and closed LotusFlow3r.com.

On July 4, 2010, Prince began his 20Ten Tour, a concert tour in two legs with shows in Europe. The second leg began on October 15[157] and ended with a concert following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 14.[158] The second half of the tour had a new band, John Blackwell, Ida Kristine Nielsen, and Sheila E.[159] Prince let Europe 1 debut the snippet of his new song "Rich Friends" from the new album 20Ten Deluxe on October 8, 2010.[160] Prince started the Welcome 2 Tour on December 15, 2010.[161]

On February 12, 2011, Prince presented Barbra Streisand with an award and donated $1.5 million to charities.[163] On the same day, it was reported that he had not authorized the television show Glee to cover his hit "Kiss", in an episode that had already been filmed.[164]

Prince headlined the Hop Farm Festival on July 3, 2011, marking his first UK show since 2007 and his first ever UK festival appearance.[165]

Despite having previously rejected the Internet for music distribution, on November 24, 2011, Prince released a reworked version of the previously unreleased song "Extraloveable" through both iTunes and Spotify.[166] Purple Music, a Switzerland-based record label, released a CD single "Dance 4 Me" on December 12, 2011, as part of a club remixes package including the Bria Valente CD single "2 Nite" released on February 23, 2012. The CD features club remixes by Jamie Lewis and David Alexander, produced by Prince.[167]

2013–2016: Return to Warner Bros., 3rdEyeGirl and HitNRun Tours and final years[edit]

In January 2013, Prince released a lyric video for a new song called "Screwdriver".[168] In April 2013, Prince announced a West Coast tour titled Live Out Loud Tour with 3rdeyegirl as his backing band.[169] The final two dates of the first leg of the tour were in Minneapolis where former Revolution drummer Bobby Z. sat in as guest drummer on both shows.[170] In May, Prince announced a deal with Kobalt Music to market and distribute his music.[171]

On August 14, 2013, Prince released a new solo single for download through the 3rdeyegirl.com website.[172] The single "Breakfast Can Wait" had cover art featuring comedian Dave Chappelle's impersonation of the singer in a sketch on the 2000s Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show.[173]

In February 2014, Prince performed concerts with 3rdeyegirl in London titled the Hit and Run Tour. Beginning with intimate shows, the first was held at the London home of singer Lianne La Havas, followed by two performances of what Prince described as a "sound check" at the Electric Ballroom in Camden,[174] and another at Shepherd's Bush Empire.[175] On April 18, 2014, Prince released a new single entitled "The Breakdown". He re-signed with his former label, Warner Bros. Records after an 18-year split. Warner announced that Prince would release a remastered deluxe edition of his 1984 album Purple Rain in 2014 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album. In return, Warner gave Prince ownership of the master recordings of his Warner recordings.[176][177]

In February 2014 Prince began what was billed as his 'Hit N Run Part One' tour. This involved Prince's Twitter followers keeping an avid eye on second-by-second information as to the whereabouts of his shows. Many of these shows would only be announced on the day of the concert, and many of these concerts involved two performances: a matinee and an evening show. These shows began at Camden's Electric Ballroom, billed as 'Soundchecks', and spread throughout the UK capital to KoKo Club, in Camden, Shepherd's Bush Empire and various other small venues. After his London dates he moved on to other European cities.

In May 2014 Prince began his 'Hit N Run Part Two' shows, which followed a more normal style of purchasing tickets online, and being held in music arenas.

In spring 2014, he launched NPG Publishing, a music company to administer his own music and that of other artists without the restrictions of mainstream record companies.[178]

In May 2015, following the death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent riots, Prince released a song entitled "Baltimore" in tribute to Gray and in support of the protesters in Baltimore.[179][180][181][182] He also held a tribute concert for Gray at his Paisley Park estate called "Dance Rally 4 Peace" in which he encouraged fans to wear the color gray in honor of Freddie Gray.[183]

Prince's penultimate album, Hit n Run Phase One, was first made available on September 7, 2015, on the music streaming service Tidal before being released on CD and for download on September 14.[184] His final album, Hit n Run Phase Two, was meant as a continuation of this one, and was released on Tidal for streaming and download on December 12, 2015.[185]

In February 2016, Prince embarked on the Piano & A Microphone Tour, a tour that saw his show stripped back to only Prince and a custom piano on stage. He performed a series of warm-up shows at Paisley Park in late January 2016 and the tour commenced in Melbourne, Australia on February 16, 2016 to critical acclaim.[186] The Australian and New Zealand legs of the tour were played in small capacity venues including the Sydney Opera House. Hit n Run Phase Two CDs were distributed to every attendee after each performance. The tour continued to the United States but was cut abruptly short by illness in April 2016.

On April 20, Prince's representatives called Howard Kornfeld, a California specialist in addiction medicine and pain management, seeking medical help for Prince. Kornfeld scheduled to meet with Prince on April 22, and he contacted a local physician who cleared his schedule for a physical examination on April 21.[191][196] On April 21, at 9:43 am, the Carver County Sheriff's Office received a 9-1-1 call requesting that an ambulance be sent to Prince's home at Paisley Park. The caller initially told the dispatcher that an unidentified person at the home was unconscious, then moments later said he was dead, and finally identified the person as Prince.[197] The caller was Kornfeld's son, who had flown in with buprenorphine that morning to devise a treatment plan for opioid addiction.[191] Emergency responders found Prince unresponsive in an elevator and performed CPR, but a paramedic said he had been dead for about six hours,[198] and they were unable to revive him. They pronounced him dead at 10:07 am, 19 minutes after their arrival.[191] There were no signs of suicide or foul play.[191] A press release from the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office in Anoka County on June 2 stated that Prince had died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl,[199] at the age of 57.[200]

It is not yet known whether Prince obtained the fentanyl by a prescription or through an illicit channel.[201] The question of how and from what source Prince obtained the drug which led to his death has been the subject of investigations by several law enforcement agencies.[192][196][198] A sealed search warrant was issued for his estate,[202] and another, unsealed, warrant was issued for the local Walgreens pharmacy.[203] On April 19, 2018, the Carver County Attorney announced that the multi-agency investigation related to the circumstances of Prince's death had ended with no criminal charges filed.[204][205]

Following an autopsy, his remains were cremated.[206] On April 26, 2016, Prince's sister and only full sibling Tyka Nelson filed court documents in Carver County, to open a probate case, stating that no will had been found. Prince's five half-siblings also have a claim to his estate, which totals millions of dollars and includes real estate, stocks, and cars.[207][208] As of three weeks after his death, 700 people claimed to be half-siblings or descendants.[209]Bremer Trust was given temporary control of his estate, had his vault drilled open,[210] and was authorized to obtain a blood sample for DNA profiling.[211]

Prince's ashes were placed into a custom, 3D printed urn shaped like the Paisley Park estate.[212] The urn was placed on display in the atrium of the Paisley Park complex in October 2016.[213]

Numerous musicians and cultural figures reacted to Prince's death.[214][215]PresidentBarack Obama mourned him,[216] and the United States Senate passed a resolution praising his achievements "as a musician, composer, innovator, and cultural icon".[217] Cities across the US held tributes and vigils, and lit buildings, bridges, and other venues in purple.[218][219][220] In the first five hours after the media reported his death, "Prince" was the top trending term on Twitter, and Facebook had 61 million Prince-related interactions.[221]MTV interrupted its programming to air a marathon of Prince music videos and Purple Rain.[222]AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas screened Purple Rain in select theaters over the following week.[223]Saturday Night Live aired an episode in his honor titled "Goodnight, Sweet Prince", featuring his performances from the show.[224]

In June 2016 Vanity Fair /Condé Nast, released a special edition commemorative magazine, The Genius of Prince. The magazine was a celebration of Prince's life and achievements, with new photography and archive articles, including the original Vanity Fair article from Nov 1984, written in the wake of Prince's breakout success, with other content from Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired, and Pitchfork. The cover of The Genius of Prince featured a portrait by Andy Warhol, Orange Prince (1984).[228][229][230]

The first album released following Prince's death was a greatest hits album, 4Ever, which was released on November 22, 2016. The album contains one previously unreleased song: "Moonbeam Levels", recorded in 1982 during the 1999 sessions.[232]

On April 19, 2017, an EP featuring six unreleased Prince recordings, titled Deliverance, was announced, with an expected release date for later that week.[233] The next day, Prince's estate was granted a temporary restraining order against George Ian Boxill – an engineer who co-produced the tracks and was in possession of the master tapes – and halted the release of the EP.[234]

On February 9, 2017, Prince's estate signed a distribution deal with Universal Music Group, which includes the post-1995 recordings on his NPG Records label and unreleased tracks from his vault.[235] On June 27, Comerica (acting on behalf of the estate) requested that Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide cancel the estate's deal with Universal, as UMG's contract would interfere with a contract with Warner Music Group that Prince signed in 2014. After Universal's attorneys were granted access to the Warner contract, the attorneys also offered to cancel the deal.[236] On July 13, the court voided Universal's deal with Prince's estate, though Universal will continue to administer Prince's songwriting credits and create merchandise.[237]

On June 23, 2017, Purple Rain was re-released as the Deluxe and Deluxe Expanded editions. It is the first Prince album to be remastered and reissued.[238] The Deluxe edition consists of two discs, the first being a remaster of the original album made in 2015 overseen by Prince himself and a bonus disc of previously unreleased songs, called From the Vault & Previously Unreleased. The Deluxe Expanded edition consists of two more discs, a disc with all the single edits, maxi-single edits and B-sides from the Purple Rain era, and a DVD with a concert from the Purple Rain Tour filmed in Syracuse, New York on March 30, 1985, previously released on home video in 1985.[239] The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on both the Billboard R&B Albums and Vinyl Albums charts.[238]

On April 19, 2018, the previously unreleased original recording of "Nothing Compares 2 U" from 1984 was released as a single by Warner Bros. Records in conjunction with Prince's estate.[240] In addition, the Prince version was given its own music video, released in conjunction with the single; the video consists of edited rehearsal footage for the Purple Rain tour, shot in the summer of 1984.[241] Troy Carter, adviser for Prince's estate, later announced in an interview with Variety that a full-length album is planned for release on September 28, 2018.[242]

In May 2018, it was announced that a second album of new material is set for release in 2019 on Tidal. This album is rumored to be Prince's planned follow-up to Hit n Run Phase Two, as part of his original deal with the streaming service. It has also been announced for a worldwide physical CD release a month after.[243]

In June 2018, the Prince estate signed a distribution deal with Sony Music Entertainment, which includes the rights to all of Prince's studio albums, plus unreleased music, remixes, live recordings, music videos and B-sides from before 1995. The deal will immediately include Prince's albums from 1995 to 2010.[244] Beginning in 2021, Prince's Warner Bros. albums from 1978–1996 will become distributed by Sony/Legacy Recordings in the United States, with Warner Music Group still controlling the international rights.[245]

On July 11, 2018, Heritage Auctions announced the auction of Prince's personal possessions to be conducted in Dallas, Texas on July 21, 2018. Total of 27 items was announced to be put in the auction, including Prince's bible, stage worn clothing, and some personal documents.[246][247]

A costume worn by Prince and associated memorabilia, displayed at a Hard Rock Cafe in Australia

The Los Angeles Times called Prince "our first post-everything pop star, defying easy categories of race, genre and commercial appeal."[248]Jon Pareles of The New York Times described him as "a master architect of funk, rock, R&B and pop", and highlighted his ability to defy labels.[249]Los Angeles Times writer Randall Roberts called Prince "among the most versatile and restlessly experimental pop artists of our time," writing that his "early work connected disco and synthetic funk [while his] fruitful mid-period merged rock, soul, R&B and synth-pop."[250]Simon Reynolds called him a "pop polymath, flitting between funkadelia, acid rock, deep soul, schmaltz—often within the same song".[251]AllMusic wrote that, "With each album he released, Prince showed remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres [...] no other contemporary artist blended so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole."[252]Rolling Stone ranked Prince at number 27 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists, "the most influential artists of the rock & roll era".[125]

As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant style and showmanship.[249] He came to be regarded as a sex symbol for his androgynous, amorphous sexuality,[253] play with signifiers of gender,[254][255] and defiance of racial stereotypes.[256] His "audacious, idiosyncratic" fashion sense made use of "ubiquitous purple, alluring makeup and frilled garments."[248] His androgynous look has been compared to that of Little Richard[253][257][258] and David Bowie.[1] In 2016, Reynolds described it as "Prince's '80s evasion of conventional gender definitions speaks to us now in this trans-aware moment. But it also harks backwards in time to the origins of rock 'n' roll in racial mixture and sexual blurring".[259]

Prince also wore high-heeled shoes and boots both on- and off-stage. Prince had needed double hip replacement surgery since 2005 and the condition was reportedly caused by repeated onstage dancing in high-heeled boots.[260] Prince had been using canes as part of his outfit from the early 1990s onwards; towards the end of his life he regularly walked with a cane in public engagements, which led to speculation that it resulted from his not having undergone the surgery.[261]

Prince was known for the strong female presence in his bands and his support for women in the music industry throughout his career.[262]Slate said he worked with an "astounding range of female stars" and "promised a world where men and women looked and acted like each other."[263]

In August 2017, Pantone Inc. introduced a new shade of purple in their color system in honor of Prince. The shade is called Love Symbol #2 and is defined as Pantone color number 19-3528, web palette #4F3D63 or RGB 79,61,99.[264][265][266][267]

Journalist Nik Cohn described him as "rock's greatest ever natural talent".[281] His singing abilities encompassed a wide range from falsetto to baritone and rapid, seemingly effortless shifts of register.[11] Prince was also renowned as a multi-instrumentalist.[1][2] He is considered a guitar virtuoso and a master of drums, percussion, bass, keyboards, and synthesizer.[3] On his first five albums, he played nearly all the instruments,[282] including 27 instruments on his debut album,[283] among them various types of bass, keyboards and synthesizers.[284] Prince was also quick to embrace technology in his music,[285] making pioneering use of drum machines like the Linn LM-1 on his early '80s albums and employing a wide range of studio effects.[286] The LA Times also noted his "harnessing [of] new-generation synthesizer sounds in service of the groove," laying the foundations for post-'70s funk music.[250] Prince was also known for his prolific and perfectionist tendencies, which resulted in him recording large amounts of unreleased material.[287]

Prince also wrote songs for other artists, and some songs of his were covered by musicians, such as the hit songs "Manic Monday", written specifically for the Bangles (as Prince was dating Susanna Hoffs), "I Feel For You", originally on Prince's self-titled second album from 1979, covered by Chaka Khan, and "Nothing Compares 2 U", written for Prince's side project the Family, and covered very successfully by Sinead O'Connor. Neither "I Feel For You" nor "Nothing Compares 2 U" were actually written for the singers who made them famous. Prince co-wrote "Love... Thy Will Be Done" with singer Martika, for her second album Martika's Kitchen, and also gifted Celine Dion a song for her second album, Celine Dion, titled "With This Tear"; a song Prince had written specifically for her.[288] Prince also wrote "U" for Paula Abdul, appearing on her 1991 release Spellbound.

In 1993, during negotiations regarding the release of The Gold Experience, a legal battle ensued between Warner Bros. and Prince over the artistic and financial control of his musical output. During the lawsuit, Prince appeared in public with the word "slave" written on his cheek.[289] He explained that he had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to emancipate himself from his contract with Warner Bros., and that he had done it out of frustration because he felt his own name now belonged to the company.[290][291]

Prince sometimes used pseudonyms to separate himself from the music he had written, produced, or recorded, and at one point stated that his ownership and achievement were strengthened by the act of giving away ideas.[104] Pseudonyms he adopted, at various times, include: Jamie Starr and The Starr Company (for the songs he wrote for the Time and many other artists from 1981 to 1984),[292][293]Joey Coco (for many unreleased Prince songs in the late 1980s, as well as songs written for Sheena Easton and Kenny Rogers),[294]Alexander Nevermind (for writing the song "Sugar Walls" (1984) by Sheena Easton),[295] and Christopher (used for his song writing credit of "Manic Monday" (1986) for the Bangles).[296]

On September 14, 2007, Prince announced that he was going to sue YouTube and eBay, because they hosted his copyrighted material, and he hired the international Internet policing company Web Sheriff.[297][298] In October, Stephanie Lenz filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Publishing Group claiming that they were abusing copyright law after the music publisher had YouTube take down Lenz's home movie in which the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy" played faintly in the background.[299][300] On November 5, several Prince fan sites formed "Prince Fans United" to fight back against legal requests which, they claim, Prince made to prevent all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers, and anything linked to his likeness.[301] Prince's lawyers claimed that this constituted copyright infringement; the Prince Fans United said that the legal actions were "attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince". Prince's promoter AEG stated that the only offending items on the three fansites were live shots from Prince's 21 nights in London at the O2 Arena earlier in the year.[302]

On November 8, Prince Fans United received a song named "PFUnk", providing a kind of "unofficial answer" to their movement. The song originally debuted on the PFU main site,[303] was retitled "F.U.N.K.", but this is not one of the selected songs available on the iTunes Store. On November 14, the satirical website b3ta.com pulled their "image challenge of the week" devoted to Prince after legal threats from the star under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).[304]

At the 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ("Coachella Festival"), Prince performed a cover of Radiohead's "Creep", but immediately afterward he forced YouTube and other sites to remove footage that fans had taken of the performance, despite Radiohead's request to leave it on the website.[305] Days later, YouTube reinstated the videos, as Radiohead said: "it's our song, let people hear it." In 2009, Prince put the video of the Coachella performance on his official website.

In 2010 he declared "the internet is completely over", elaborating five years later that "the internet was over for anyone who wants to get paid, tell me a musician who's got rich off digital sales".[11]

In January 2014, Prince filed a lawsuit titled Prince v. Chodera against 22 online users for direct copyright infringement, unauthorized fixation, contributory copyright infringement, and bootlegging.[308] Several of the users were fans who had shared links to bootlegged versions of Prince concerts through social media websites like Facebook.[309][310] In the same month, he dismissed the entire action without prejudice.[311]

Prince was one of a small handful of musicians to deny "Weird Al" Yankovic permission to parody his music. By Yankovic's account, he'd done so "about a half-dozen times" and has been the sole artist not to give any explanation for his rejection beyond a flat "no".[312]

Prince was romantically linked with many celebrities over the years, including Kim Basinger, Madonna, Vanity, Sheila E., Carmen Electra, Susanna Hoffs, Anna Fantastic,[18]Sherilyn Fenn,[313] and Susan Moonsie.[314] He was engaged to Susannah Melvoin in 1985.[315] In 1990, he met 16-year-old Mayte Garcia backstage in Germany after he saw a tape of her dancing. She moved into his Paisley Park home and he became her guardian.[316] After graduating high school, she began working as one of his backup singers and dancers. When she was 19, he instructed her to get on birth control, thus beginning their sexual relationship.[316] They were married on February 14, 1996; he was 37 and she was 22. They had a son named Amiir Nelson, who was born on October 16, 1996 and died a week later on October 23 after suffering from Pfeiffer syndrome.[317] The distress of losing a child and a subsequent miscarriage took a toll on the marriage, and the couple divorced in 2000. In 2001, Prince married Manuela Testolini in a private ceremony. They separated in 2005 and divorced in May 2006.[318]

Prince had needed double hip replacement surgery since 2005. A false rumor was spread by the tabloids[327] that he would not undergo the operation because of his refusal to have blood transfusions. The Star Tribune reported[328] that Graham, Prince's mentor and Bible teacher, "denied claims that Prince couldn't have hip surgery because his faith prohibited blood transfusions" and put the false rumor to rest as hip surgery does not require blood transfusions.[329][330][331] According to Morris Day, Prince in fact had the hip surgery in 2008.[332] The condition was reportedly caused by repeated onstage dancing in high-heeled boots.[260] Prince had been using canes as part of his outfit from the early 1990s onwards; towards the end of his life he regularly walked with a cane in public engagements, which led to speculation that it resulted from his not having undergone the surgery.[333]

^Norment, Lynn (January 1997). "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". Ebony. p. 130. Retrieved April 21, 2016. While he retains the publishing rights to all his songs, Warner Brothers owns the master tapes to the 20 albums preceding Emancipation.

^Lester, Paul; Hot Chip (July 25, 2008). "That's one potent hot toddy". The Guardian. Retrieved April 22, 2016. He [Todd Rundgren] was a hero to the young Prince, who would try to get backstage to meet the gangly whizzkid multi-instrumentalist with the long, rainbow-coloured hair; […]

^Hawkins & Niblock 2012: "Evidence of Prince's desire to control everything was blatantly apparent in the presentation of the credits on the album's sleeve: produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince and a listing of the 27 instruments he played."

1.
Minneapolis
–
Minneapolis is the county seat of Hennepin County, and the larger of the Twin Cities, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As of 2015, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul anchor the second-largest economic center in the Midwest, after Chicago. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul. It was once the worlds flour milling capital and a hub for timber, the city and surrounding region is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing Americas fifth-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. As an integral link to the economy, Minneapolis is categorized as a global city. Noted for its music and performing arts scenes, Minneapolis is home to both the award-winning Guthrie Theater and the historic First Avenue nightclub. The name Minneapolis is attributed to Charles Hoag, the citys first schoolteacher, who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word for water, and polis, Dakota Sioux had long been the regions sole residents when French explorers arrived around 1680. For a time relations were based on fur trading, gradually more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Dakota. In the early 19th century, the United States acquired this territory from France, fort Snelling was built in 1819 by the United States Army, and it attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth in the area. The United States government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, the Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present-day Minneapolis as a town in 1856 on the Mississippis west bank. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the city of St. Anthony in 1872. Minneapolis developed around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River, forests in northern Minnesota were a valuable resource for the lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses, including mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes. Due to the hazards of milling, six local sources of artificial limbs were competing in the prosthetics business by the 1890s. The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the citys thirty-four flour mills, a father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray and some acquired through industrial espionage from the Hungarians by William de la Barre, pillsbury Company across the river were barely a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to immediately use the new methods. The hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable, not until later did consumers discover the value in the bran that Minneapolis

2.
Minnesota
–
Minnesota is a state in the midwestern and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U. S. state on May 11,1858, the state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan Land of 10,000 Lakes. Its official motto is LÉtoile du Nord, Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 21st most populous of the U. S. Minnesota is known for its progressive political orientation and its high rate of civic participation and voter turnout. Until European settlement, Minnesota was inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe, in recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Latin America has broadened its historic demographic and cultural composition. Minnesotas standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls, Minneiska, Minneota, Minnetonka, Minnetrista, and Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, Minnesota is the second northernmost U. S. state. Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel. The state is part of the U. S. region known as the Upper Midwest and it shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and a land and water border with Wisconsin to the east. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west, with 86,943 square miles, or approximately 2.25 percent of the United States, Minnesota is the 12th-largest state. Minnesota has some of the Earths oldest rocks, gneisses that are about 3.6 billion years old. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean, the roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1, in more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the landscape of the state and sculpted its terrain. The Wisconsin glaciation left 12,000 years ago and these glaciers covered all of Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. This area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift, much of the remainder of the state outside the northeast has 50 feet or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. Gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago and its bed created the fertile Red River valley, and its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi downstream from Fort Snelling. Minnesota is geologically quiet today, it experiences earthquakes infrequently, the states high point is Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet, which is only 13 miles away from the low of 601 feet at the shore of Lake Superior. Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a rolling peneplain. Two major drainage divides meet in Minnesotas northeast in rural Hibbing, forming a triple watershed, precipitation can follow the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Saint Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the Arctic Ocean

3.
Chanhassen, Minnesota
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Chanhassen is a city in Carver and Hennepin counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 22,952 at the 2010 census, the origin of the name comes from the Dakota word chanhasen meaning sugar-maple tree. The northern metro area Hassan Township carries the latter syllable of the word to avoid confusion, Chanhassen was ranked as the #2 best place to live in America in 2009 by Money Magazine, and fourth among small towns rated as best places to live in 2013. Chanhassen is located at 44°51′44″N 93°31′50″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.88 square miles, of which 20.44 square miles is land and 2.44 square miles is water. Although the bulk of Chanhassen is in Carver County, a portion also extends into Hennepin County. U. S. Highway 212 and Minnesota State Highways 5 and 41 are three of the routes in Chanhassen. Township 116 North, Range 23 West, Fifth Principal Meridian of the Public Land Survey System, according to data from the US Census Bureau the median household income for Chanhassen was $103,462. For the same period the per capita income was $46,305. Three percent of the population was living below the poverty line, as of the census of 2010, there were 22,952 people,8,352 households, and 6,257 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,122.9 inhabitants per square mile, there were 8,679 housing units at an average density of 424.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 92. 5% White,1. 1% African American,0. 1% Native American,3. 9% Asian,0. 9% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 3% of the population. 20. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.23. The median age in the city was 39.3 years. 30. 2% of residents were under the age of 18,5. 5% were between the ages of 18 and 24,24. 3% were from 25 to 44,32. 3% were from 45 to 64, and 7. 7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49. 1% male and 50. 9% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 20,321 people,6,914 households, and 5,524 families residing in the city. The population density was 978.1 people per square mile, there were 7,013 housing units at an average density of 337.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 94. 90% White,0. 75% African American,0. 15% Native American,2. 83% Asian,0. 41% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 98% of the population. 15. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 3. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.94 and the average family size was 3.33

4.
Fentanyl
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Fentanyl is a potent, synthetic opioid pain medication with a rapid onset and short duration of action. It is a potent agonist at receptors in the brain. Fentanyl was first made by Paul Janssen in 1960, following the inception of pethidine several years earlier. Janssen developed fentanyl by assaying analogues of the related drug pethidine for opioid activity. The widespread use of fentanyl triggered the production of fentanyl citrate, following this, many other fentanyl analogues were developed and introduced into medical practice, including sufentanil, alfentanil, remifentanil, and lofentanil. As of 2012, fentanyl was the most widely used synthetic opioid in medicine, in 2013,1700 kilograms were used globally. Fentanyl is also used as a drug, leading to thousands of overdose deaths from 2000 to 2017. Deaths have also resulted from improper medical use, intravenous fentanyl is often used for anesthesia and analgesia. During anaesthesia it is used along with a hypnotic agent like propofol. Fentanyl may be included in a solution along with local anesthetic for neuraxial administration and it is also administered in combination with a benzodiazepine, such as midazolam, to produce sedation for procedures such as endoscopy, cardiac catheterization, and oral surgery. It is often used in the management of pain including cancer pain. Fentanyl transdermal patches are used in pain management. The patches work by slowly releasing fentanyl through the skin into the bloodstream over 48 to 72 hours, dosage is based on the size of the patch, since, in general, the transdermal absorption rate is constant at a constant skin temperature. Rate of absorption is dependent on a number of factors, body temperature, skin type, amount of body fat, and placement of the patch can have major effects. The different delivery systems used by different makers will also affect rates of absorption. Under normal circumstances, the patch will reach its full effect within 12 to 24 hours, thus and it is unclear if fentanyl gives pain relief to people with neuropathic pain. People with moderate to severe renal failure, troublesome side effects of oral morphine, hydromorphone, or oxycodone. Care must be taken to guard against the application of heat sources which in certain circumstances can trigger the release of too much medication

5.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions

6.
Funk
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Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Like much of African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves. Funk uses the same richly-colored extended chords found in jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths. Other musical groups, including Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt, Funk samples have been used extensively in genres including hip hop, house music, and drum and bass. It is also the influence of go-go, a subgenre associated with funk. The word funk initially referred to a strong odor and it is originally derived from Latin fumigare via Old French fungiere and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 funky meaning musty was first documented, which, in turn, in early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to get down by telling one another, Now, put some stank on it. At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky, as late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when funk and funky were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer was the first to use the word funky to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated, the style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented, a great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Browns rhythm section used it to great effect. Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and bass lines, like Motown recordings, funk songs used bass lines as the centerpiece of songs. Slap basss mixture of thumb-slapped low notes and finger popped high notes allowed the bass to have a rhythmic role. In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a style, often using the wah-wah sound effect. Guitarist Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic were notably influenced by Jimi Hendrixs improvised solos, Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is one of the most notable guitar soloists in funk. Ernie Isley was tutored at an age by Jimi Hendrix himself. Jimmy Nolen and Phelps Collins are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown, on Browns Give It Up or Turnit a Loose, Jimmy Nolens guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure

7.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis

8.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40

9.
Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers

10.
Warner Bros. Records
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Warner Bros. Records was established on March 19,1958, as the recorded-music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. For most of its existence it was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros. and its allied labels evolved through a series of corporate mergers. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a minor player in the music industry to become one of the top recording labels in the world. In 2003, these assets were divested by their then owner Time Warner. This independent company traded as the Warner Music Group before being bought by Access Industries in 2011, WMG is the smallest of the three major international music conglomerates and the worlds last publicly traded major music company. Cameron Strang serves as CEO of the company, artists currently signed to Warner Bros. At the end of the silent movie period, Warner Bros, pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. This new group controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern, the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby, Mills Brothers, and Boswell Sisters. In December 1931, Warner Bros. offloaded Brunswick to the American Record Corporation for a fraction of its former value, in a lease arrangement which did not include Brunswicks pressing plants. Warner Bros. sold Brunswick a second time, this time along with the old Brunswick pressing plants Warner owned, to Decca Records in exchange for a financial interest in Decca. The studio stayed out of the business for more than 25 years. Warner Bros. reëntered the record business in 1958 with the establishment of its own recording division, by this time, the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance - the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a impact on their business—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s. Pictures sold off much of its library in 1948 and, beginning in 1949. Semenenko in particular had a professional interest in the entertainment business. With the record business booming - sales had topped US$500 million by 1958 - Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros, another impetus for the labels creation was the brief music career of Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter. In 1958, the studio signed Hunter as its first artist to its newly formed record division, to establish the label, the company hired former Columbia Records president James B

11.
Paisley Park Records
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Paisley Park Records was Princes record label, which was distributed by and funded in part by Warner Bros. It was started in 1985, following the success of the film, the label shares its name with Princes recording complex Paisley Park Studios and the song Paisley Park on his 1985 Around the World in a Day album. Paisley Park was opened to the public as a museum and memorial to Prince following his death, October 28,2016 is officially known as Paisley Park Day in the city of Chanhassen to recognize the opening of the museum. While Prince had great success in the 1980s, the success generally did not transfer to other acts. In 1994, amid Princes feud with Warner Bros, Warner ended its distribution deal with Paisley Park, effectively closing the label. Prince fought for the rights to the recordings of all artists recorded there. Prince later started NPG Records, run by Trevor Guy, the vice-president of Operations for the label until 1991 was Alan Leeds. With the joint venture came funding for staff to run the label and oversee its artists - including Mavis Staples, George Clinton, Ingrid Chavez. Staffers included John Dukakis and Kerry Gordy as co-presidents of the label, the labels office were in a building with the address 1999 Avenue of the Stars. The studio was designed by architecture firm BOTO Design Inc, of Santa Monica, California and it contains two live music venues used as rehearsal spaces. After the label folded in 1994, Prince continued to live, Princes intention before his death was to establish Paisley Park as a public venue à la Graceland. He was found dead in an elevator at his residence on April 21,2016. On August 24,2016, it was announced that Paisley Park would be turned into a open to the public. Tours of the Paisley Park Museum started October 2016, Graceland Holdings, the company that has managed Elvis Presleys Graceland since 1982, is set to organize the tours of Paisley Park. Romance 16001986, Mazarati, Mazarati 1987, Madhouse,81987, Sheila E. Sheila E. C. Records, except for those denoted with §, list of record labels The Inside Story on Designing Princes Paisley Park, Exclusive

12.
EMI Records
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The label was later launched worldwide. Records Ltd. legal entity was created in 1957 as the record manufacturing and it oversaw EMIs various labels, including The Gramophone Co. Ltd. Columbia Graphophone Company, and Parlophone Co. Ltd, in July 1965, the standalone EMI Record companies were extracted from E. M. I. Records Ltd. and folded into The Gramophone Company Ltd, on 1 July 1973, The Gramophone Co. Ltd. was renamed EMI Records Ltd. Records Ltd. was wound down and its activities were absorbed into EMI Records Ltd, earlier, on 1 January 1973, all of The Gramophone Company Ltd. pop labels had been rebranded as EMI. EMI Records then signed new acts that became global successes, Kraftwerk, Renaissance, Queen, Olivia Newton-John, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, Sheena Easton, Pink Floyd, in 1997, EMI Records American division was folded into Virgin Records. In 2010, EMI Records opened a music division, EMI Records Nashville, which includes on its roster Troy Olsen, Alan Jackson, Kelleigh Bannen. EMI Records Nashville is a label to the Capitol Nashville unit of Universal Music Group. EMI Christian Music Group was renamed Capitol Christian Music Group, EMI Classics was sold to Warner Music Group on February 2013. After EU regulatory approval, EMI Classics was absorbed into Warner Classics on July 2013, abbey Road Studios List of record labels

13.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership

14.
Arista Records
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/ˈɛ. rɪ. stə/ was a major American record label. It was a wholly owned unit of Sony Music Entertainment and was handled by Bertelsmann Music Group. The company operated under the RCA Music Group until 2011, the label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records. Until its demise in 2011, it was a distributor and promoter of albums throughout the United States. Today, the labels reissues and catalogue releases are handled by RCA Records, after being fired from CBS Records, Clive Davis was hired by Columbia Pictures in June 1974 to be a consultant for the companys record and music operations. The label was named Arista after New York Citys secondary school honor society, in early 1975, most of the artists who had been signed to Bell were let go, except David Cassidy, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and the 5th Dimension. Others, such as Suzi Quatro and Hot Chocolate, were farmed out to the Bell/Arista-distributed label, several Bell acts, such as Barry Manilow, the Bay City Rollers, and Melissa Manchester moved to Arista. The British Bell label kept that name for a couple of years before changing its name to Arista, the label was immortalized in the 1978 Rockpile song They Called It Rock, in the lyric, Arista says they love you/But the kids cant dance to this. In addition to Manilow, the Kinks, and Dionne Warwick, Arista signed Aretha Franklin in 1980, the labels most significant acquisition came in 1983 when Davis signed Warwicks cousin, Whitney Houston. Houston would eventually become Aristas biggest-selling recording artist, with sales of 200 million records worldwide, Arista had an imprint label in the 1970s called Arista Novus, which focused on contemporary jazz artists. A country music division, Career Records, was merged into the Arista Nashville division in 1997, Arista Austin was used in the late 1990s as a country label. Additionally, Arista was the North American distributor of Jive Records from 1981 until 1987, during the 1990s, Arista also distributed Logic, Rowdy and Heavenly Recordings. Looking to stave off bankruptcy, Columbia Pictures sold Arista to German-based Ariola Records in 1979, after Ariola purchased General Electrics RCA Records in 1986, the combined company was renamed Bertelsmann Music Group, though Aristas U. S. releases would not note BMG until 1987. Into the 1980s, Arista continued its success, including major UK act Secret Affair, over the years it acquired Northwestside Records, deConstruction Records, First Avenue Records, and Dedicated Records in the UK. In 1989, Arista entered into a joint venture with Antonio L. A. Reid and Babyface in the creation of LaFace Records record company of TLC, in 1993, Arista also entered into a joint-venture with Sean P. Diddy Combs to form Bad Boy Records. In 1997 Arista acquired Profile Records, the home of Run-D. M. C. in 1989, Arista signed Milli Vanilli, a duo consisting of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan that was based in Germany. The label released its album, Girl You Know Its True, which was a remixed and re-edited version of All or Nothing. The album was certified platinum in the U. S. and charted five top-ten singles

15.
Universal Music Group
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Universal Music Group is an American-French global music corporation that is a subsidiary of the Paris-based French media conglomerate Vivendi. UMGs global corporate headquarters are in Santa Monica, California and it is considered one of the Big Three record labels, along with Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Universal Music was once the music attached to film studio Universal Pictures and its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in September 1934. The Decca Record Co. Ltd. of England spun American Decca off in 1939, MCA Inc. merged with American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram in May 1998, however, the name had first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group. The PolyGram acquisition included Deutsche Grammophon which traces its ancestry to Berliner Gramophone making Deutsche Grammophon UMGs oldest unit, UMGs Canadian unit traces its ancestry to a Berliner Gramophone breakaway firm the Compo Company. With the 2004 acquisition of Universal Studios by General Electric and merging with GEs NBC and this is the second time a music company has done so, the first being the separation of Time Warner and Warner Music Group. On June 25,2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion purchase of BMG Music Publishing, after receiving European Union regulatory approval, doug Morris stepped down from his position as CEO on January 1,2011. Former chairman/CEO of Universal Music International Lucian Grainge was promoted to CEO of the company, Grainge later replaced him as chairman on March 9,2011. Morris became the chairman of Sony Music Entertainment on July 1,2011. With Grainges appointment as CEO at UMG, Max Hole was promoted to COO of UMGI, starting in 2011 UMGs Interscope Geffen A&M Records will be signing contestants from American Idol/Idol series. On January 2011, UMG announced it was donating 200,000 master recordings from the 1920s to 1940s to the Library of Congress for preservation, in March 2011, Barry Weiss became chairman & CEO of The Island Def Jam Music Group & Universal Republic Records. Both companies are restructuring under Weiss, in December 2011, David Foster was named Chairman of Verve Music Group. Among the other companies that had competed for the music business was Warner Music Group which was reported to have made a $2 billion bid. However, IMPALA has said it would fight the merger, coincidentally, UMG sister company StudioCanal has owned the EMI Films library for several years. On September 21,2012, the sale of EMI to UMG was approved in Europe, UMG divested Mute Records, Parlophone, Roxy Recordings, MPS Records, Cooperative Music, Now Thats What I Call Music. Jazzland, Universal Greece, Sanctuary Records, Chrysalis Records, EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, the Beatles recorded music library was allowed to remain with UMG despite being considered part of Parlophone and is now managed by UMGs reorganized Capitol Music Group worldwide. Robbie Williams, who had recorded for Chrysalis, had his transferred to Universals Island Records

16.
The Time (band)
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The Time, also known as Morris Day and the Time and The Original 7ven, is an American musical group that was formed in Minneapolis in 1981. Their work has been a part of the formation of the Minneapolis sound, featuring a mix of music and dance music with funk, rock n roll. Band members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are also long-time collaborators with Janet Jackson, the Time was assembled under a clause in Princes contract with Warner Bros. that allowed him to recruit and produce other artists for the label. Prince had used an Enterprise song, Partyup, on his Dirty Mind album, the band went on to release four albums, consisting of jammy, rock-infused 1980s funk, generally light and humorous in tone, strongly influenced by Parliament, James Brown and Sly. With the exception of singer Morris Day, who was required to follow Princes guide vocals note-for-note, Prince instead played all the instruments himself, crediting the production to his alter-ego, Jamie Starr, and Morris Day. A rivalry developed between The Time and Princes band during their 1982 Controversy Tour, frustrated with their lack of input on the albums bearing their name and at being underpaid, The Time would take to the stage with the intent of showing up Prince. On the final night of the tour in Cincinnati, during the Times set, Prince, after The Times performance, guitarist Jesse Johnson was handcuffed to a wall-mounted coat rack. Prince demanded no interruptions during his performance, but as soon as he left the stage, when the battle continued at the hotel, Prince held Morris Day responsible and made him pay for all damages. During the 1982–83 1999/Triple Threat tour, The Time served as Vanity 6s backing band from behind a curtain and they liked the arrangement because the band saw it as free money. Terry Lewis said, Ill play behind Vanity 6 for thirty minutes for $250, I was going to have to do the sound check, anyway. Subsequently, the duo were fined and then fired, although Prince would state in a 1990 Rolling Stone interview, I didnt fire Jimmy, Morris asked me what I would do in his situation. You got to remember, it was his band, whether their firing was due to the incident or to their increasing independence has never been clear. Monte Moir took the opportunity to leave as well, and would work with Jam. The three were replaced with Mark Cardenas and Paul Peterson on keyboards and Rocky Harris on bass and this new line up, with Jerry Hubbard replacing Rocky Harris, was featured in Princes Purple Rain film. The Time rode the wave of popularity created by the movie and hit singles Jungle Love, Day left after arguments with Prince, choosing to pursue a solo career in 1985 after a successful acting turn in Purple Rain. With Jesse Johnson also opting to go solo, the band disintegrated, the remaining members were reformed into a new short-lived project called The Family. Meanwhile, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis went on to one of the most successful songwriting. In 1990, the seven members of the band reunited for the Graffiti Bridge movie and soundtrack

17.
The Revolution (band)
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The Revolution is an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1979 by Prince. Although widely associated with music, the bands sound incorporated rhythm and blues, pop, funk. Before their official break-up, The Revolution had released two albums, two soundtracks, and two videos. The band is known for its members, varied in race. The Revolution rose to fame in the mid-1980s with Purple Rain. The band achieved two number-one Billboard 200 albums, six top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the band officially disbanded in 1986 after the Hit n Run – Parade Tour, which supported Parade, the soundtrack for Under the Cherry Moon. Prince died in 2016, after which the band announced reunion shows, when Prince formed his backing band after the release of his first album, he followed in the footsteps of one of his idols, Sly Stone, by creating a multi-racial, multi-gendered musical ensemble. The band initially consisted of, Prince on lead vocals, guitar, the recordings were a group effort with lead vocals by Cymone, Dickerson or Chapman. The project was shelved for reasons, but two of the tracks were later re-recorded and given away by Prince. You, became U, and was released on Paula Abduls Spellbound album while If I Love U 2nite was released by both Mica Paris and Princes later wife, Mayte Garcia, Paris rerecorded the song from scratch. Garcias version was rerecorded by Prince, on the next two tours following the Prince Tour, the band underwent two line-up changes. Gayle Chapman, who had religious beliefs as a member of The Way. The end came when she told Prince she planned to go on a trip with her Way group, after a long argument, Chapman quit the group to be replaced by Lisa Coleman. The following year, after the Dirty Mind Tour, bass guitarist André Cymone would leave the band, ultimately, Cymone was replaced by Mark Brown, renamed Brownmark by Prince. Coleman was usually identified by her first name, while Fink started wearing surgical scrubs on stage. Fink originally wore a black and white striped prison jumpsuit, however, a member of Rick James band was doing the same thing and not wanting to copy that, Prince asked Fink, Do you have any other ideas. Fink said, What about a doctors outfit, Prince loved the idea, and thus was born Doctor Fink. The band members were curious as to if they were getting a real name, when the 1999 Tour ended, Dez Dickerson finally left the band for religious reasons and was replaced by Lisas childhood friend Wendy Melvoin

18.
Sheena Easton
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Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer, recording artist and stage and screen actress with dual UK-United States nationality. Eastons first two singles, Modern Girl and 9 to 5, both entered the UK Top Ten, and she was the first UK female artist to appear twice in the same Top Ten since Ruby Murray. She has recorded 16 studio albums, released 45 singles total worldwide, Top 40 singles, seven U. S. top tens and one U. S. No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1981 and 1991. She also had 25 top 40 hits in international territories around the world, in Canada, Easton scored three gold and two platinum albums. She has sold over 20 million albums and singles worldwide, Eastons other hits include the James Bond theme For Your Eyes Only, Strut, U Got the Look and The Arms of Orion with Prince, The Lover in Me and What Comes Naturally. She has worked with prominent vocalists and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, David Foster, Luis Miguel, L. A. Reid & Babyface, Patrice Rushen and Nile Rodgers. Easton was born Sheena Shirley Orr in the Scottish town of Bellshill and she had two brothers, Robert and Alex, and three sisters, Marilyn, Anessa and Morag. Eastons father died in 1969 and her mother had to support the family, Easton did not consider a singing career until she saw the movie The Way We Were, with Barbra Streisand. Streisands singing over the opening credits overtook the young girl and convinced her that what she wanted most was to be a singer and she chose to study teaching rather than performing, because it was a course of study that would let her perfect her craft as a singer. In 1979, she married Sandi Easton, the first of her four husbands and they divorced after eight months, and Sheena decided to keep the surname Easton. That year, one of her tutors coaxed her into auditioning for Esther Rantzen, Rantzen was planning a documentary film to chronicle a relative unknowns rise to pop-music stardom. Easton was selected as the subject for the programme, where she met and sang with Dusty Springfield and Lulu, within a year of the programme airing, Sheena Easton proved Massey wrong as EMI executives awarded her a contract, and Christopher Neil was assigned as her recording producer. Deke Arlon became her first manager, and Easton spent much of 1980 being followed by camera crews and her first single, the disco-tinged soft-synth-pop tune, Modern Girl, was released in the UK before The Big Time aired, reached number 56 and was certified a Silver single. At the end of the show, Easton was still unsure of her future as a singer. The question was resolved soon after the show aired, when her single,9 to 5. Modern Girl re-entered the chart subsequently and climbed into the top 10, during 1980, Easton was voted Best British Female Singer by the Daily Mirror Pop & Rock Awards, Best Newcomer by Capital Radio, and Best Female Singer by the TV Times Readers Awards. Morning Train became Eastons first and only number 1 hit in the US, the song was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe award in 1982 in the category Best Music. Eastons US success culminated in her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1981, Eastons first three US albums, Sheena Easton, You Could Have Been With Me, and Madness, Money and Music, were all in the same soft rock/adult contemporary pop vein

19.
Sheila E.
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Sheila Escovedo better known under the stage name Sheila E. is an American percussionist, singer, author, and actress. She began her career in the mid 1970s as a percussionist, after leaving the group in 1983, Sheila began a successful solo career, starting with her critically acclaimed debut album, which included the career-defining song, The Glamorous Life. She became a solo star in 1985 following the success of the singles, The Belle of St. Mark, Sister Fate. She is commonly referred to as The Queen of Percussion, born in Oakland, California, Sheila E. is the daughter of Juanita Gardere, a dairy factory worker, and percussionist Pete Escovedo, with whom she frequently performs. Her mother is Creole, African American, and her father is of Mexican origin, Sheila Es uncle is Alejandro Escovedo, and Tito Puente was Escovedos godfather. She also is niece to Javier Escovedo, founder of seminal San Diego punk act The Zeros, another uncle, Mario Escovedo, fronted long-running indie rockers The Dragons. She also is the niece of Coke Escovedo, who was in Santana, nicole Richie is Sheila E. s biological niece, the daughter of Sheilas musician brother, Peter Michael Escovedo. Sheila made her debut with jazz bassist Alphonso Johnson on Yesterdays Dream in 1976. By her early 20s, she had played with George Duke, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock. In 1977, she joined The George Duke Band and she appeared on several of Dukes albums including, Dont Let Go, Follow the Rainbow, Master of the Game, A Brazilian Love Affair. In 1983, she joined Marvin Gayes final tour Midnight Love Tour as one of his percussionist, Prince met Sheila E. at a concert in 1978, when she was performing with her father. After the show he met her and told her that he and he also vowed that one day she would join his band. The two would join forces during the Purple Rain recording sessions. She provided vocals on the B-side to Lets Go Crazy, Erotic City in 1984, though taken under Princes wing, she proved to be a successful artist in her own right. In June 1984, she released her debut album The Glamorous Life, the albums title-track single The Glamorous Life peaked at number 7 the Hot 100 and also topped the dance charts for two weeks in August 1984. The video for the song would bring three MTV Award nominations for Best Female Video, Best New Artist, and Best Choreography and she also received two Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Performance Female. Her second single The Belle of St. Mark charted at number 34 on Billboard Hot 100 and they would later become briefly engaged in the late 80s, during Princes Sign o the Times Tour. In 1985, she released Romance 1600, the lead single Sister Fate peaked at number 36 on the R&B charts

20.
Chaka Khan
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Chaka Khan is an American recording artist whose career has spanned five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. Widely known as the Queen of Funk, Khan has won ten Grammys and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide, Khan was ranked at number 17 in VH1s original list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2015, she was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second time, Khan was the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with I Feel for You in 1984. In the course of her career, Khan has achieved three gold singles, three gold albums and one platinum album with I Feel for You. With Rufus, she achieved four gold singles, four gold albums, in December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her as the 65th most successful dance artist of all-time. Chaka Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens on March 23,1953 into an artistic, bohemian household in Chicago, Illinois. She is the eldest of five born to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman. She was raised in the Hyde Park area, an island in the middle of the madness of Chicagos rough South Side housing projects and her sister Yvonne later became a successful musician in her own right under the name Taka Boom. Her only brother, Mark, who formed the funk group Aurra and she has two other sisters, Zaheva Stevens and Tammy McCrary. Chaka Khan was raised as a Catholic and she attributed her love of music to her grandmother, who introduced her to jazz as a child. Khan became a fan of rhythm and blues music as a pre-teen and at eleven formed a group, the Crystalettes. Though many think that she was given the name Chaka while in the Panthers she has made it clear that her name Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi was given to her at age 13 by a Yoruba Baba. In 1969, she left the Panthers and dropped out of school, having attended Calumet High School. She began to perform in groups around the Chicago area, first performing with Cash McCalls group Lyfe, which included her then boyfriend Hassan Khan. She was asked to replace Baby Huey of Baby Huey & the Babysitters after Hueys death in 1970, the group disbanded a year later. While performing in bands in 1972, she was spotted by two members of a new group called Rufus and soon won her position in the group. They later signed with ABC Records in 1973, prior to signing with the label, she married on-and-off boyfriend Hassan Khan, changing her stage name to Chaka Khan. In 1973, Rufus released their eponymous debut album and that changed when Wonder himself collaborated with the group on a song he had written for Khan

21.
Rhythm and blues
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Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B or RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy. Lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economics, aspirations, the term rhythm and blues has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s it was applied to blues records. This tangent of RnB is now known as British rhythm and blues, by the 1970s, the term rhythm and blues changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a style of R&B developed, becoming known as Contemporary R&B. It combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop, popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey. Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term rhythm and blues as a term in the United States in 1948. It replaced the term race music, which came from within the black community. The term rhythm and blues was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, before the Rhythm and Blues name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term race music with sepia series. In 2010 LaMont Robinson founded the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum, writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans. He has used the term R&B as a synonym for jump blues, however, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of its stronger, gospel-esque backbeat. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that rhythm, according to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts. Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use to music made by black musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, while singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, an associated with the modern popular music that rhythm. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords, there was also increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone

22.
New wave music
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New wave is a genre of rock music popular from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s with ties to 1970s punk rock. New wave moved away from smooth blues and rock and roll sounds to create pop music that incorporated electronic and experimental music, mod, initially new wave was similar to punk rock, before becoming a distinct genre. It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions, including synth-pop, college rock, common characteristics of new wave music include the use of synthesizers and electronic productions, the importance of styling and the arts, as well as diversity. In the mid-1980s, differences between new wave and other genres began to blur. New wave has enjoyed resurgences since the 1990s, after a rising nostalgia for several new wave-influenced artists, subsequently, the genre influenced other genres. During the 2000s, a number of acts explored new wave and post-punk influences, such as the Strokes, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand and these acts were sometimes labeled new wave of new wave. The catch-all nature of new music has been a source of much confusion. The 1985 discography Whos New Wave in Music listed artists in over 130 separate categories, the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock calls the term virtually meaningless, while AllMusic mentions stylistic diversity. New wave first emerged as a genre in the early 1970s, used by critics including Nick Kent and Dave Marsh to classify such New York-based groups as the Velvet Underground. It gained currency beginning in 1976 when it appeared in UK punk fanzines such as Sniffin Glue and newsagent music weeklies such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express. In November 1976 Caroline Coon used Malcolm McLarens term new wave to designate music by bands not exactly punk, the term was also used in that sense by music journalist Charles Shaar Murray in his comments about the Boomtown Rats. For a period of time in 1976 and 1977, the new wave. By the end of 1977, new wave had replaced punk as the definition for new music in the UK. As radio consultants in the United States had advised their clients that punk rock was a fad, like the filmmakers of the French new wave movement, its new artists were anti-corporate and experimental. At first, most U. S. writers exclusively used the new wave for British punk acts. Music historian Vernon Joynson claimed that new wave emerged in the UK in late 1976, in the U. S. the first new wavers were the not-so-punk acts associated with the New York club CBGB. CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, referring to the first show of the band Television at his club in March 1974, said, furthermore, many artists who would have originally been classified as punk were also termed new wave. A1977 Phonogram Records compilation album of the same name features US artists including the Dead Boys, Ramones, Talking Heads, New wave is much more closely tied to punk and came and went more quickly in the United Kingdom than in the United States

23.
Psychedelic music
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Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs. Numerous spiritual successors followed in the decades, including progressive rock, krautrock. Since the 1970s, revivals have included psychedelic funk, neo-psychedelia, psychedelic as an adjective is often misused, with many so-called acts playing in a variety of styles. Dechronicization permits the user to move outside of conventional perceptions of time. Depersonalization allows the user to lose the self and gain an awareness of undifferentiated unity, dynamization, as Leary wrote, makes everything from floors to lamps seem to bends, as familiar forms dissolve into moving, dancing structures. Music that is truly psychedelic mimics these three effects, a number of features are quintessential to psychedelic music. Exotic instrumentation, with a fondness for the sitar and tabla are common. Songs often have disjunctive song structures, key and time signature changes, surreal, whimsical, esoterically or literary-inspired, lyrics are often used. There is often an emphasis on extended instrumental segments or jams. There is a strong presence, in the 1960s this especially using electronic organs, harpsichords, or the Mellotron. In the 1960s there was a use of electronic instruments such as early synthesizers. Later forms of electronic psychedelia also employed repetitive computer-generated beats, R. Veysey, they profoundly influenced the thinking of the new generation of youth. The psychedelic lifestyle had already developed in California, particularly in San Francisco, by the mid-1960s, with the first major underground LSD factory established by Owsley Stanley. There was already a culture of use among jazz and blues musicians. One of the first musical uses of the term psychedelic in the scene was by the New York-based folk group The Holy Modal Rounders on their version of Lead Bellys Hesitation Blues in 1964. His nineteen-minute The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party anticipated elements of psychedelia with its nervy improvisations, similarly, folk guitarist Sandy Bulls early work incorporated elements of folk, jazz, and Indian and Arabic-influenced dronish modes. His 1963 album Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo explores various styles, soon musicians began to refer to the drug and attempted to recreate or reflect the experience of taking LSD in their music, just as it was reflected in psychedelic art, literature and film. This trend ran in parallel in both America and Britain and as part of the folk, folk rock and rock scenes

24.
Grammy Award
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A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an honor awarded by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of awards that have a more popular interest. It shares recognition of the industry as that of the other performance awards such as the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards. The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4,1959, to honor, following the 2011 ceremony, The Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 59th Grammy Awards, honoring the best achievements from October 2015 to September 2016, was held on February 12,2017, the Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating a given by their industry similar to the Oscars. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts, after it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it, one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the gramophone, for the awards, the number of awards given grew and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed, at one time reaching over 100. The second Grammy Awards, also held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised, the gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. In 1990 the original Grammy design was revamped, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, Billings developed a zinc alloy named grammium, which is trademarked. The trophies with the name engraved on them are not available until after the award announcements. By February 2009,7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded, the General Field are four awards which are not restricted by genre. Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a full album if other than the performer. Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a single song if other than the performer. Song of the Year is awarded to the writer/composer of a single song, Best New Artist is awarded to a promising breakthrough performer who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist. The only two artists to win all four of these awards are Christopher Cross, who won all four in 1980, and Adele, who won the Best New Artist award in 2009 and the other three in 2012 and 2017. Other awards are given for performance and production in specific genres, as well as for other such as artwork. Special awards are given for longer-lasting contributions to the music industry, the many other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast

25.
Golden Globe Award
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Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual ceremony at which the awards are presented is a part of the film industrys awards season. The 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film, the 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, was held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel. In 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to establish an honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as a figure within the entertainment industry. The official name of the award became the Cecil B. In 1963, the Miss Golden Globe concept was introduced, in its inaugural year, two Miss Golden Globes were named, one for film and one for television. The two Miss Golden Globes named that year were Eva Six and Donna Douglas, respectively, in 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned. It was unveiled at a conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show. The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, telecast to 167 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars, gervais returned to host the 68th and 69th Golden Globe Awards the next two years. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th, 71st and 72nd Golden Globe Awards in 2015, the Golden Globe Awards theme song, which debuted in 2012, was written by Japanese musician and songwriter Yoshiki Hayashi. On January 7,2008, it was announced due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The ceremony was faced with a threat by striking writers to picket the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was forced to adopt another approach for the broadcast. In acting categories, Meryl Streep holds the record for the most competitive Golden Globe wins with eight, however, including honorary awards, such as the Henrietta Award, World Film Favorite Actor/Actress Award, or Cecil B. DeMille Award, Barbra Streisand leads with nine, additionally, Streisand won for composing the song Evergreen, producing the Best Picture, and directing Yentl in 1984. Jack Nicholson, Angela Lansbury, Alan Alda and Shirley MacLaine have six awards each, behind them are Rosalind Russell and Jessica Lange with five wins. Meryl Streep also holds the record for most nominations with thirty, at the 46th Golden Globe Awards an anomaly occurred, a three way-tie for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

26.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze

27.
Purple Rain (film)
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Purple Rain is a 1984 American rock musical drama film directed by Albert Magnoli, produced by Robert Cavallo, Joseph Ruffalo, and Steven Fargnoli, and written by Magnoli and William Blinn. The film inspired the soundtrack and studio album of the same name, the film stars Prince in his acting debut, playing a quasi-biographical person called The Kid. Purple Rain was developed to showcase his talents and hence contains several extended concert sequences, the film grossed more than US $35 million at the box office in the United States and over 220 million worldwide, thus making a large profit on its $7.2 million budget. Purple Rain is the feature film that Prince starred in. The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score, currently the last to receive the award and it was nominated for two Razzie Awards, Worst New Star for Apollonia Kotero and Worst Original Song for Sex Shooter. A semi-sequel, Graffiti Bridge, was released in 1990, the Kid is the talented but troubled frontman of his Minneapolis-based band The Revolution. First Avenues three house band slots are held by The Revolution, the flashy Morris Day and his group The Time and she eventually joins Morriss group, which Morris names Apollonia 6. When she reveals her partnership to the Kid, he becomes furious and slaps her, at the club, the Kid responds to the internal band strife, the pressure to draw more crowds, and his strained private life with the uncomfortably personal Darling Nikki. His performance publicly humiliates Apollonia, who runs off in tears, Billy confronts the Kid, castigating him for bringing his personal life onto the stage and warning him that hes wasting his musical talent like his father did. The debut of Apollonia 6 is a success, and Billy warns the Kid that his First Avenue slot is at risk, the Kid seizes Apollonia from a drunken Morris and the two argue, Apollonia then abandons him. Returning home, he finds the house in tatters, with his mother nowhere to be found, when he turns on the basement light, his father – who had been lurking in the basement with a loaded handgun – shoots himself in the head. In a frenzy after a night of torment, the Kid tears apart the basement to release his anger, the next morning, the Kid picks up a cassette tape of one of Wendy and Lisas compositions, a rhythm track named Slow Groove, and begins to compose. That night at First Avenue, all is quiet in The Revolutions dressing room until The Time stops by to taunt the Kid about his family life. Once on stage, the Kid announces that he will be playing a song the girls in the band wrote, as the emotional song ends, the Kid rushes from the stage and out the back door of the club, intending to ride away on his motorcycle. However, before he can mount his motorcycle, he realizes that the crowd is thrilled by his new song, the Kid returns to the club, to be greeted by the approval of his fellow musicians and the embrace of a teary-eyed Apollonia. A montage of all the plays as the credits roll. Prince as The Kid Apollonia Kotero as Apollonia Morris Day as Morris Olga Karlatos as Mother Clarence Williams III as Father, the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The soundtrack sold over 15 million copies in America alone, and 25 million worldwide, the film also coincided with spin-off albums by The Time and Apollonia 6

28.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a hall of fame and museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In 1986, Cleveland was chosen as the hall of fames permanent home.8 billion, the Foundation began inducting artists in 1986, but the Hall of Fame still had no home. The search committee considered several cities, including Philadelphia, Memphis, Detroit, Cincinnati, New York City, Cleveland was also one of the premier tour stops for most rock bands. Civic leaders in Cleveland pledged $65 million in money to fund the construction. A petition drive was signed by 600,000 fans favoring Cleveland over Memphis, on May 5,1986, the Hall of Fame Foundation chose Cleveland as the permanent home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Sam Phillips of Sun Studios fame and many others were stunned and disappointed that it ended up in Cleveland, the hall of fame shouldve been in Memphis, certainly, wrote Peter Guralnick, author of an acclaimed two-volume Elvis Presley biography. Cleveland may also have chosen as the organizations site because the city offered the best financial package. As The Plain Dealer music critic Michael Norman noted, It was $65 million, Cleveland wanted it here and put up the money. During early discussions on where to build the Hall of Fame and Museum, ultimately, the chosen location was along East Ninth Street in downtown Cleveland by Lake Erie, east of Cleveland Stadium. Initial CEO Dr. Larry R. Thompson facilitated I. M. Pei in designs for the site, Pei came up with the idea of a tower with a glass pyramid protruding from it. The museum tower was planned to stand 200 ft high. The buildings base is approximately 150,000 square feet, the groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 7,1993. Pete Townshend, Chuck Berry, Billy Joel, Sam Phillips, Ruth Brown, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave, Carl Gardner of the Coasters and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum all appeared at the groundbreaking. The museum was dedicated on September 1,1995, with the ribbon being cut by an ensemble that included Yoko Ono and Little Richard, among others, the following night an all-star concert was held at the stadium. It featured Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Al Green, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, and many others. In addition to the Hall of Fame inductees, the documents the entire history of rock and roll. Hall of Fame inductees are honored in an exhibit located in a wing that juts out over Lake Erie. Since 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has selected new inductees, the formal induction ceremony has been held in New York City 25 times, twice in Los Angeles, and four times in the Hall of Fames home in Cleveland

29.
For You (Prince album)
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For You is the first studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on April 7,1978 by Warner Bros, the album bore the soon-to-be classic tag produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince. The album was produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince, as it featured him writing all the songs, the album was intended to establish Prince as an artist and to prove his merits, it was produced to the point of spending triple the allotted budget. Because of this, his album would have to have some hits to recoup the somewhat lackluster release. Its lead single, Soft and Wet, became a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. However, it became a top-twenty hit on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, peaking at number 12, the second single released from the album, Just as Long as Were Together, stalled at number 91 on the R&B charts. While critics felt Prince had talent and possessed the most thrilling falsetto since Smokey Robinson, the album originally peaked at number 163 on the US Billboard 200 chart when it was released in 1978. It went on to sell two million copies worldwide. In 2016, the album recharted on the Billboard 200 and peaked at number 138 after Princes death, the album also peaked at number 200 on the French Albums Chart and number 156 on the UK Albums Chart even though it didnt originally chart in those countries. All tracks written by Prince, except where noted

30.
Prince (album)
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Prince is the eponymous second studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on October 19,1979 by Warner Bros, Prince recorded the album in just a few weeks after Warner Bros. asked for a follow-up to his 1978 debut, For You. Prince had used twice his initial recording advance on the album, displeased at his lack of success, Prince quickly recorded the follow-up. Overall, the album was more diverse and well-received than For You, critically and commercially. It is notable for containing standard R&B ballads performed by Prince, the album was certified platinum and contained three R&B/dance hits, Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad. Sexy Dancer and I Wanna Be Your Lover, I Wanna Be Your Lover sold over two million copies and received a platinum disc, rushing to No.11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the R&B charts. In addition, it peaked at No.41 in the United Kingdom, Prince performed both I Wanna Be Your Lover and Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad. on American Bandstand on 26 January 1980. Overall, the success of this album geared Prince towards his next album, Dirty Mind, which would be called a complete departure from his earlier sound. I Wanna Be Your Lover b/w My Love is Forever Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad. b/w Baby Still Waiting b/w Bambi Sexy Dancer b/w Bambi/Baby Prince at Discogs Prince at Prince Vault

31.
Music recording sales certification
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Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory, almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories, which are named after precious materials. The number of sales or shipments required for these awards depends upon the population of the territory in which the recording is released, typically, they are awarded only to international releases and are awarded individually for each country in which the album is sold. Different sales levels, some perhaps 10 times lower than others, the original gold record awards were presented to artists by their own record companies to publicize their sales achievements. The first of these was awarded by RCA Victor to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in February 1942, another example of a company award is the gold record awarded to Elvis Presley in 1956 for one million units sold of his single Dont Be Cruel. The first gold record for an LP was awarded by RCA Victor to Harry Belafonte in 1957 for the album Calypso and these sales were restricted to U. S. -based record companies and did not include exports to other countries. For albums in 1968, this would mean shipping approximately 250,000 units, the platinum certification was introduced in 1976 for the sale of one million units, album or single, with the gold certification redefined to mean sales of 500,000 units, album or single. No album was certified platinum prior to this year, for instance, the recording by Van Cliburn of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto from 1958 would eventually be awarded a platinum citation, but this would not happen until two decades after its release. In 1999, the certification was introduced for sales of ten million units. On 14 March 1958, the RIAA certified its first gold record, soundtrack was certified as the first gold album four months later. In 1976, RIAA introduced the platinum certification, first awarded to Johnnie Taylors single, Disco Lady, as music sales increased with the introduction of compact discs, the RIAA created the Multi-Platinum award in 1984. Diamond awards, honoring those artists whose sales of singles or albums reached 10,000,000 copies, were introduced in 1999 and this became much less common once the majority of retail sales became paid digital downloads and digital streaming. In most countries certifications no longer apply solely to physical media, in June 2006, the RIAA also certified the ringtone downloads of songs. Streaming from on-demand services such as Rhapsody and Spotify has been included into existing digital certification in the U. S since 2013, in the U. S. and Germany video streaming services like YouTube, VEVO, and Yahoo. Music also began to be counted towards the certification, in both cases using the formula of 100 streams being equivalent to one download, other countries, such as Denmark and Spain, maintain separate awards for digital download singles and streaming. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry was founded in 1996, and grants the IFPI Platinum Europe Award for album sales over one million within Europe, multi-platinum Europe Awards are presented for sales in subsequent multiples of one million. Eligibility is unaffected by time, and is not restricted to European-based artists, IMPALA sales awards were launched in 2005 as the first sales awards recognising that success on a pan-European basis begins well before sales reach one million. The award levels are Silver, Double Silver, Gold, Double Gold, Diamond, Platinum, below are certification thresholds for the United States and United Kingdom

32.
Dirty Mind
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Dirty Mind is the third studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on October 8,1980, by Warner Bros. Records as the follow-up to his album, Prince. On June 6,1984, it was certified gold in shipments by the Recording Industry Association of America, Dirty Mind was recorded primarily in Princes home studio throughout 1980, and several of the songs were cut in one night, giving them a sparse, demo-like quality. According to Ken Tucker from Rolling Stone, Princes first two collections established him as a doe-eyed romantic, nothing could have prepared us for the liberating lewdness of Dirty Mind. Dirty Mind jolts with the tension that arises from rubbing complex erotic wordplay against clean. Across this ELECTRIC surface glides Princes graceful quaver, tossing off lyrics with an exhilarating breathlessness and he takes the sweet romanticism of Smokey Robinson and combines it with the powerful vulgate poetry of Richard Pryor. The result is cool music dealing with hot emotions, at its best, Dirty Mind is positively filthy. According to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Dirty Mind remains one of the most radical 180-degree turns in pop history, robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times described the music from the album as confident and highly danceable blend of post-disco funk and tasty, hard-line rock. Princes songwriting contains prominently sexual lyrics, keith Harris of Blender characterizes its songs as confessions of a sex junkie with new-wave funk. Pitchfork Media ranked Dirty Mind number 87 on its list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1980s, slant Magazine listed the album at number 53 on its Best Albums of the 1980s list. In 2003, the album was ranked number 204 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the same magazine ranked it at number 18 on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s. The first single, Uptown reached No.101 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles but peaked within the top five of the R&B Singles chart, the title track was released as the second single and was modestly successful on the R&B chart. The songs Uptown, Dirty Mind, and Head were released together, all tracks written by Prince, except where noted. Lisa Coleman – vocals on Head Doctor Fink – synthesizer on Dirty Mind and Head Prince – all other vocals and instruments Nathan Brackett, the New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition, Dirty Mind at Discogs Dirty Mind at Prince Vault

33.
Controversy (Prince album)
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Controversy is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on October 14,1981 by Warner Bros, Controversy begins with its title track, which raises questions that were being asked about him at the time, including his race and sexuality. The song flirts with blasphemy by including a chant of The Lords Prayer, do Me, Baby is an extended bump-n-grind ballad with explicitly sexual lyrics, and Ronnie, Talk to Russia is a politically charged plea to President Ronald Reagan. The albums final song, Jack U Off, is a synthesized rockabilly-style track and this was the first of his albums to associate Prince with the color purple as well as the first to use sensational spelling in his song titles. On Controversy, that libertine proclaims unfettered sexuality as the condition of a new, more loving society than the bellicose. He went on to say, Despite all the contradictions and hyperbole in Princes playboy philosophy, Controversy was voted the eighth best album of the year in the 1981 Pazz & Jop, an annual critics poll run by The Village Voice. All tracks written, composed, and arranged by Prince except where indicated, Prince - lead vocals, bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, producer, arranger Lisa Coleman - sitar, keyboards, backing vocals, keyboards Dr. Fink - keyboards Bobby Z. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition, Controversy at Discogs Controversy at Prince Vault

34.
1999 (Prince album)
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1999 is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on October 27,1982, by Warner Bros,1999 was Princes breakthrough album, but his next album, Purple Rain, would become his most successful. The title track was a protest against nuclear proliferation and became his first top ten hit in countries outside the United States, the albums opening title track,1999, was also its first single and initially peaked at number 41 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was subsequently re-released following the success of its follow-up single and 1999s second track, Little Red Corvette. Shortly after being reissued,1999 hit number 12 and has become one of Princes most recognizable compositions. The music videos for both 1999 and Little Red Corvette were significant as two of the first videos by a black artist to receive rotation on the newly launched music video channel. The two tracks were combined as a double A-side single in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 2. The album is, however, notable within Princes catalogue for its variety of themes in addition to the sexual imagery which had already become something of a trademark on his previous work. Something in the Water, an ode to a lover, is the centerpiece of a preoccupation with Computer Age themes that would continue into future albums. Prince himself has cited the movie Blade Runner as an influence on the synth sound. The albums cover features elements from the front cover of Princes previous album, Controversy, namely the eyes and the Rude Boy pin in the 1999, the studs in the R. The I in Prince contains the words and the Revolution written backwards,1999 received widespread acclaim from critics. In 2003, the TV network VH1 placed 1999 49th in its list of the greatest albums of all time. The album was part of Slant Magazines list The 50 Most Essential Pop Albums. In 2003, the album was ranked #163 on Rolling Stone magazines list of the 500 greatest albums of all time while in 1989 it was ranked the 16th 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The original compact disc version of the album was also cut, later compact disc pressings included the track. On the cassette release, Free was placed after D. M. S. R. to end the first side, and Brown Mark do appear in the music videos

35.
Purple Rain (album)
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Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince, the first to feature his backing band The Revolution, and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name. It was released on June 25,1984 by Warner Bros, to date, it has sold over 22 million copies worldwide, making it the sixth-best-selling soundtrack album of all time. Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in music history, Time magazine ranked it the 15th greatest album of all time in 1993, and it placed 18th on VH1s Greatest Rock and Roll Albums of All Time countdown. Rolling Stone ranked it the second-best album of the 1980s and 76th on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the album was certified thirteen-times platinum by the RIAA. In 2007, the editors of Vanity Fair labeled it the best soundtrack of all time, the 1, 000th issue of Entertainment Weekly dated July 4,2008, listed Purple Rain at number one on their list of the top 100 best albums of the past 25 years. In 2013, the also listed the album at number two on their list of the 100 Greatest Albums ever. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #2 on its list of Best Albums of the 1980s behind only Michael Jacksons Thriller. In the same year, the album was added to the Library of Congresss National Recording Registry list of recordings that are culturally, historically. Purple Rain was released by Warner Bros. Records on June 25,1984, Prince wrote all of the songs on the album, some with the input of fellow band members. I Would Die 4 U, Baby Im a Star and Purple Rain were recorded live from a show on August 3,1983, at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis, with overdubs and this marked the first time Prince included live recordings on any release. The show was a concert for the Minnesota Dance Theater and featured the first appearance of guitarist Wendy Melvoin in Princes band. Take Me with U was intended for the Apollonia 6 album, a band recording with the Revolution and Jill Jones on backing vocals. The Beautiful Ones, Darling Nikki and When Doves Cry are all Prince recordings, Purple Rain was the first Prince album recorded with and officially credited to his backing group The Revolution. Musically, Purple Rain remained grounded in the R&B elements of Princes previous work while demonstrating a more pronounced rock feel in its grooves, as a soundtrack record, much of the music had a grandiose, synthesized, and even—by some evaluations—a psychedelic sheen to the production and performances. As with many massive crossover albums, Purple Rains consolidation of a myriad of styles, in addition to the records breakthrough sales, music critics noted the innovative and experimental aspects of the soundtracks music, most famously on the spare, bass-less When Doves Cry. Take Me with U was written for the Apollonia 6 album, theres every emotion from the ballad to the rocker, observed Jon Bon Jovi. All the influences were evident, from Hendrix to Chic, Prince won a third Grammy that year for Best Rhythm and Blues Song for Chaka Khans cover of I Feel for You. Purple Rain also won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score in 1985, Purple Rain sold 13 million units in the United States, including 1.5 million in its debut week, earning a Diamond Award from the Recording Industry Association of America

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American major record label established in 1958 as the foundation label of the …

The gold, black and red label design used for Warner Bros. stereo albums from 1958 to 1968 and mono albums from 1964 to 1968.

The grey, black, white and yellow label design used for Warner Bros. mono albums from 1958 to 1964 when it switched to the same gold label as the stereo version.

"Cream Puff War" (1967), the first single by the Grateful Dead. The orange label with chevron border was used on Warner Bros.' American 45s for much of the 1960s.

Beginning in 1968, Warner LP and single label designs became identical. From 1968 to 1970, the label was called Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Records. The basic design and colour scheme of the W7 label were retained after the company name reverted to Warner Bros. Records and the "WB" shield in 1970 and remained in use until 1973.